A rural community-based interdisciplinary curriculum: a social work perspective.
Although social workers are frequently part of interdisciplinary teams in health care and community settings, interdisciplinary training is often lacking in social work education (Berg-Weger & Schneider, 1998). This article describes a study of the effects of an interdisciplinary community-based experiential course preparing new health care professionals for work as part of interdisciplinary teams. The interdisciplinary curriculum was established for a summer course taught in 2006 by faculty from five disciplines: social work, nutrition, medicine, nursing, and public health. The course, Quality Improvement in Rural Healthcare, which focused on health literacy in people with a diagnosis of diabetes that live in northeast Tennessee, provided a model environment for learning interdisciplinary teamwork. Evaluation of this course found that social work students displayed a statistically significant increase in positive attitude toward interdisciplinary teamwork. Course strengths, weaknesses, obstacles, and opportunities for curriculum improvement are elaborated.
Lennon-Dearing
Robin
R
Department of Social Work, East Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 70645, Johnson City, TN 37614, USA. lennon@etsu.edu
Florence
Joe
J
Garrett
Linda
L
Click
Ivy A
IA
Abercrombie
Suzanne
S
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003479:Curriculum; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D010348:Patient Care Team; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012947:Social Work / Q000193:education* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D000078329:Workforce